Constitutional Court orders compliance and prioritization of the substitution policy and its relationship with the Comprehensive Rural Reform

Statement by the Corporación Colectivo de Abogados Luis Carlos Pérez- CCALCP, the Asociación Campesina del Catatumbo- Ascamcat, and the Coordinadora Nacional de Cultivadores y Cultivadoras de Cultivadores de Coca Amapola y Marihuana- Coccam Tibú, organizations involved in the SU 545 ruling of 2023; in the framework of the session of the Territorial Advisory Council - CAT, an instance of articulation of the Integral National Program for the Substitution of Crops for Illicit Use - PNIS convened for June 26, 2023 in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander.

With sentence SU 545 of 2023, notified on April 9, 2024, the fundamental rights of peasant communities linked to the PNIS in the department of Norte de Santander, a population affected in socioeconomic and humanitarian matters with the delays and non-compliance of the Program's components, were protected. The Caño Indio rural nucleus, made up of four villages, is the first pilot substitution plan in the department with 347 beneficiary families, who have been waiting seven years for the delivery of the productive project and the formalization of the land, fundamental components to guarantee the transition to licit crops.

This constitutional decision, which studied the inclusion and implementation phases of the PNIS, declared the binding nature of the collective agreements signed by the communities, the individual agreements in favor of family nuclei, and the obligation of the entities to comply with them. This decision also reiterated the hierarchy of voluntary substitution over forced eradication. And, among others, it ordered:

• To the National Government the budgetary allocation sufficient to ensure compliance with what was agreed, in a comprehensive, coordinated and articulated manner.
  
• To the Agency for the Renewal of the Territory - ART and other entities of the National order, in charge of the Programs for the Substitution of Illicit Crops and the Integral Rural Reform, it ordered that, within six months, they adopt measures to comply with the agreements reached, the implementation of the Integral Alternative Development Plans - PISDA, the Program for Development with a Territorial Approach - PDET and the correct implementation of the PNIS.
  
• To the Directorate for the Substitution of Illicitly Used Crops - DSCI, guarantee the functioning of the bodies established in the PNIS. And, to both the DSCI and the ART to make an adjustment proposal to correct the flaws in the execution of the PNIS.
  
• The National Government and the Congress of the Republic were urged to advance the regulatory adjustments with respect to differential criminal treatment.

The inter communis effect of this decision and the expansion of its orders in the municipalities of Tibú and Sardinata is highlighted, in favor of 2986 families registered in the PNIS in Norte de Santander; of these, 2684 families in 101 villages in the municipality of Tibú and 302 families in 11 villages in the municipality of Sardinata. And taking into account that, according to ART information, in the department the number of families registered and pre-registered in the Program amounts to 5,000, this sentence represents an opportunity to demand the policy set forth in the Peace Agreement, in territories of the Catatumbo region and the department where communities persist in their commitment to carry out voluntary substitution.

With this ruling, the facts alleged by the plaintiffs since 2020 were proven, according to evidentiary material collected during 2018 and 2019. And indeed, the rights to equality, to work, to citizen participation, to personal security, to defend human rights, respect for the principle of legitimate trust and compliance in good faith with what was agreed in point 4 of the Final Agreement, due to deficiencies in inclusion, linkage and implementation to the PNIS were protected.

Although this situation is already known to local, departmental and national authorities, as well as control entities, the population has not yet been informed. This implies that civil society organizations continue to follow up on what has been ordered to the institutions according to their competence: national and territorial entities, the Congress of the Republic, the High Presidential Council for the Post-Conflict, the DSCI, the ART, the Public Ministry, CSIVI, the Ministry of Defense, the National Army, the National Police, and the National Protection Unit- UNP.

It should be noted that, although the unified judgment that studied the implementation of the PNIS in the departments of Nariño, Cauca, Putumayo and Norte de Santander did not decree an unconstitutional state of affairs in response to the remedies adopted in this pronouncement, the communities will continue to present their demands and, if the authorities continue to fail to comply, they will request a study of this systematic violation.